Functionalization of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) through atom transfer radical polymerization for the preparation of poly(tert‐butyl acrylate)/CNF materials: Spectroscopic,thermal, morphological,and physical characterizations

Vapor‐grown carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were oxidized and functionalized for atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of tert‐butyl acrylate (t‐BA) from the surface of the CNFs. The materials were characterized by solubility tests, Fourier‐transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy. The FTIR and electron microscopy results suggest that ATRP process was successfully used to graft poly(tert‐butyl acrylate) (poly(t‐BA)) chains from the surface of the fibers. Raman results strongly indicate the partial degradation of the graphitic layer of CNFs because of the chemical treatments. TGA results suggest that the presence of poly(t‐BA) leads to a decrease of the initial degradation temperature of the fibers. XRD and electron microscopy results indicate that the microstructure of fibers was not destroyed because of the oxidation and functionalization processes. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 3326–3335, 2008     

Absence of second-order phase transitions in the Dobrushin uniqueness region

The Dobrushin uniqueness theorem assures that in a very large class of high-temperature classical statistical mechanical lattice models with short or long range, many-body interactions, and arbitrary compact spin space there are no first-order phase transitions. It will be shown that for the same class of interactions there are also no second-order phase transitions.Research partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant MCS 78-00688.     

Transport coefficients of quark-gluon plasma

Transport coefficients of quark-gluon plasma are discussed in the framework of relativistic kinetic theory with the relaxation time approximation of Boltzmann transport equation. The expressions for the coefficients of shear and volume viscosities and heat conductivity are derived assuming quark-gluon plasma to be a non-reactive mixture of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons. A lowest order in deviations from local thermal equilibrium and in plasma phase, lowest order in coupling constant are assumed. Entropy production due to irreversible processes is discussed.     

Extension of a simplified method for molecular correlation energy calculations to molecules containing third row atoms. I. Methodological developments

An extension of a simplified method for molecular correlation energy calculations to molecules containing third row atoms is presented. In addition to the use of pseudo-potentials in the calculations, the consequences of this extension on the different components of the energy partition which is the basic idea of the method, is analysed. Particular emphasis is placed on the specific role played by the 3d orbitals in each of the energy components. First, at the zeroth order, the energy is found to be very sensitive to the optimization of the 3d polarization functions. Secondly, the internal correlation energy, calculated by CI, requires the optimization of distinct 3d correlation orbitals to describe adequately the strong near-degeneracy effects that occur within the valence space. Finally it is shown that the 3d orbitals contribute partially to the non-internal correlation energy and that, the atoms-in-molecule structures corresponding typically to all-external contributions are negligible. The concept of error energy is introduced in place of the non-internal correlation energy: it includes the relativistic contributions within the semi-empirical tables. Such tables are presented for second row atoms and for the chlorine atom. From these tables, predicted values for some atomic term energies, experimentally undetermined, are derived. The methodological tests are limited here to the chlorine atom which is chosen for further applications in the next paper of this series. The conclusions concerning the applicability of the method to third row atoms are however quite general.Boursier I.R.S.I.A     

Lattice defects in poly(p-phenylene-terephthalamide) fibers

The lattice defects in PPTA fibers were studied by line profile analysis. The results indicate that lattice distortions are produced by local defects, probably chain ends incorporated into the crystalline lattice. The disorder is strongly anisotropic. There are indications for the existence of small domains of higher disorder which do not disappear on annealing.Dedicated to Professor Dr. R. Bonart on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

T0-spaces and pointwise convergence

The purpose of this paper is to give several different characterizations of those T₀-spaces E with the property that if F:X × E → Y is separately continuous, then it is jointly continuous. One such is that the lattice 0(E) of open sets of E be a hypercontinuous lattice (i.e. the interval topology on 0(E) is Hausdorff). If E is a sober space, then E must be a quasicontinuous poset endowed with the Scott topology.     

Lattice square approach to construction of mutually orthogonalF-squares

Summary Factorial design theory has been effectively used in solving problems associated with many combinatorial structures. Hedayat, Raghavarao and Seiden [7] clearly demonstrated this in obtaining various results onF(n, λ)-squares. Indeed, both theorems in their paper are cute observations if knowledge of factorial design theory is assumed. The objective of this paper is to present the lattice square method for obtaining sets of mutually orthogonalF(n, λ)-squares of given ordern. As a by-product a generalization of a theorem, due to the above authors, is obtained and a lower bound is presented for the number of mutually orthogonalF(n, λ)-squares on sets of various cardinalities associated with the canonical decomposition ofn as a product of powers of distinct primes.     

IR-active lattice modes of α-glycine and deutero-α-glycine

The 9 IR-active lattice modes of alpha-glycine have been observed in the far-infrared using a Fourier transform Michelson interferometer.